On-line Course Information.† Having promised myself and several of the principals that I would
understand how Haverfordís Web-fronted on-line course information system came
to be unable to meet one faculty memberís needs, I first sought to ascertain
what syllabi were in fact linked to the searchable Web portal. My first
discovery was that there are infact two such databases; my second
finding was that the Collegeís Web resources concerning catalogue information,
departmental offerings and requirements, and specific courses can indeed be
confusing to a typical Ph.D.

One reason faculty do not know what information about
their courses is on-line is that they cannot find the appropriate Web
resource. The TriCollege Course Guide (http://www.trico.haverford.edu/cgi-bin/courseguide/cgi-bin/search.cgi) and the Course Information Lookup page (http://adm-cgi.haverford.edu/courseinfo/infosearch.cgi)
both present course information from the Administrative Computing database.
Each is, IMO, quite straightforward in design and user interface, but the
former is more complex and, if its search options are not carefully selected,
it can seem to produce different results (or even no results at all) on
successive searches. Both resources are linked to the Registrarís page as http://www.haverford.edu/deptinfo/acaddepts.html,
but few of us use that route and one can easily forget how one got to a
different set of results on previous browsing. My first recommendation: put
clear, adjacent, informative links on the Registrarís main page and on the Course Information,
Student, and Faculty buttons
thereon. Iíd also suggest that all academic departments also add a link to
these two search engines in a fairly standard way. Many of our staff and
clients will now expect to find course information on departmental Web pages,
or in a single catalogue-like resource; but these efforts are likely to be
frustrated by the existence of similar-seeming but very different resources

Course Syllabi Linked to Course Information Lookup. I
undertook to discover, for a sample of ten faculty (chosen almost at random,
though I tried to include junior and senior, male, and female, and non- and
scientist colleagues). I entered each name into http://adm-cgi.haverford.edu/courseinfo/infosearch.cgi
and got the following results:

∑Amador††††††††††††††††††††† 4/5†††††††††††††††††††† 1/4

∑Ball†††††††††††††††††††††††††††† 0/1

∑Dawson††††††††††††††††††††† 0/2

∑Finley††††††††††††††††††††††††† 1/1†††††††††††††††††††† 1/1

∑Gollub†††††††††††††††††††††††† 3/3†††††††††††††††††††† 1/3

∑Greene††††††††††††††††††††††† 0/3

Hart††††††††††††††††††††††††††† 0/2

Owen†††††††††††††††††††††††† 0/7

Smith
(Paul)††††††††††††††† 0/3

∑Sternberg††††††††††††††††††† 0/4

The first numbers represent how many of the listed courses
have any linked information, and the second how many of those
links point to actual syllabi. I infer from these sample data that we have far
from complete compliance with Carol
Wilkinsonís September 21, 1999, memo to faculty about the importance, and
the means, of supplying online course information.

Since the two of three faculty with listings are in Physics, I
compared entries for the science departments Physics, Chemistry, and Biology,
with these results:

∑Physics†††††††††††††††††††††† 10/10†††††††††††††††† 2/10

Chemistry†††††††††††††††††† 0/10

Biology†††††††††††††††††††††† 0/10

That is, two of this semesterís Physics courses have linked
syllabus material , but none of the courses in the allied departments of
Chemistry and Biology do. Inference: even scientists do not use this
system with aplomb.

So, several years after Haverford College began
to provide Web-accessible data on courses, 17 faculty were found to have
supplied syllabus text files to be linked to that database.† No wonder most faculty feel guilty about
failure to comply with yet another College policy, and most students find it
hard to plan an academic career with the on-line resources available. On the
basis of this data-gathering, I submit that we do not have a viable
resource here for student course selection. The resource works well to list
courses being offered, with time and location; but detailed descriptions and
syllabi must mostly be found elsewhere. Carol has done a fine job with the
materials supplied her in a timely fashion, but she has not had even nearly
adequate compliance.

Departmental Information on the Haverford
College Website. On the other hand, many
faculty do have syllabus materials linked to the various departmental Web pages,
and most of these Web pages now convey some of the range and quality of our
offerings in each academic field.† These
Web pages, in turn, are accessible in a variety of ways from the College's main
pages Ė but finding that link, too, can be difficult; and the existence of an
similar-looking link to the College's printed
catalog in Web form creates real potential for confusion.

Browsing Haverford departmental Web pages
reveals the following:

Astronomy shares a
Web page with Physics.† This
page includes a link to the Haverford Web catalog, with its boilerplate
material, and a link to the online database listing for physics and
astronomy, with its semi-complete listing of links to material about
courses.† This is a well-designed
and remarkably complete Web page, showing the ongoing attention of faculty
and staff.† It provides a great
deal of course information (though not to some of the course in question),
and links to it from the online guide might serve students and faculty as
well as linked text in the online guide.

Biology also has a
sophisticated and apparently well maintained web page.† It to links to the college catalog
page, but its own linked syllabus materials are more convenient and complete
than anything we are likely to achieve an an institutional level with
acceptable effort. A model to be discussed.

Chemistry's
departmental page offers a "Courses" link that loads a table
with all of the department courses, including a link that provides the
short boilerplate catalog description as well as a "Homepage"
link to the full syllabus.† This
was slow to load on my browser, but it is the most elegant solution I have
seen yet.

The Mathematics
Department page links courses by semester, and the Fall 2000 link loads a
table of course information populated with data from the tri-college
course guide.† This is a nice
visual summary of information many students and advisers probably do not
routinely get to from the tri-co guide itself, but the individual links
are, in most cases, empty of syllabus detail.

Anthropology's web
page has a link for a list of courses, consisting apparently of the
boilerplate descriptions from the college catalog.† Two of these are linked to full
syllabi, although these happen to be for courses not being offered this
year.

The Economics page
links to a simple list of short descriptions of courses, with no apparent
full syllabi.

History, too,
provides a simple link to brief text description of courses, with no
linked syllabi.

Political Science
adopts the frames solution to the course listing problem, with links in
the left-hand column to short description, and some full text syllabi in
the main window.† Several of these
links did not work, however.† The
separate "Current Courses" link provides a table for both Fall
and spring semesters, including short text descriptions and some links to
fuller syllabi. An interesting approach.

Psychology's
"courses" link provides catalog descriptions of each course,
with syllabus links for almost all courses.† These are in a variety of formats, and some are to course
Web sets. An oldie but goodie.

The Sociology
Department Web page is a short text listing of department faculty and
courses, with brief descriptions of each. No syllabi.

The Chinese Department
page links to a list of course descriptions, with one full syllabus.† It also includes a link to East Asian
Studies.

The Classics page,
like Sociology, is a short list of department staff and courses, with no
syllabi.

The Comparative
Literature page, which serves a bi-college department, lists courses
without describing their content and includes two linked syllabi.

East Asian Studies
lists courses without describing them and includes one linked syllabus.

Selecting
"Courses" from the English page loads a frame with links
to courses by level.† Individual
courses are then described briefly, with links to syllabi.† There is a separate link for
"Courses with Active Web Sites" with four entries. A fine
beginning.

Fine Arts is
another simple text page with short descriptions of courses, and no
syllabi.

French, too, is a
simple text page. No syllabi.

The bi-college German
Department page link to "Courses" loads tables for each
semester's offerings, with one linked syllabus.

Italian, too, is a
simple text page. No syllabi.

The Japanese
department page consists of the statement "We offer a full
undergraduate curriculum of courses in modern Japanese," and of a
link to student projects. No syllabi.

The Music Department's link
"Complete Listing of Music Courses" loads short text
descriptions of each course and links to one syllabus.

Philosophy, too, is a simple text page.
No syllabi.

The Religion page "Courses"
link loads a table of course times and titles, with several links to full
syllabi.† There is also a link to a
table of previously offered courses.

The Spanish Department's link "The
Courses" loads a full list of course descriptions, one with a
(broken) link to a course Web resource.

The CIO group is now at a point where, having
spent collectively dozens of hours on issues related to on-line course
information in recent weeks, we should try both to make what changes suggest
themselves to the College's Web resources and to the course database Web
resource itself, and we should consider both possible revision of the policy of soliciting faculty syllabi
for linking to the database and a clear articulation of that policy in writing
(and on the Website) so that it can be submitted to the faculty and they can be
aided to compliance.